Newman Online Weekly commentary by Muriel Newman

ACT’s once radical policies are now determining the
future of New Zealand

This week Newman Online
looks at how ACT proposed the policies which are now shaping
the future of New Zealand

Two polls out
this morning show that Labour could win the election. That
is even before their astonishing $300 million student loan
bribe is factored in. According to the budget, there was
$1.9 billion in surplus tax that remained unallocated and
available for new spending, so in terms of future election
bribes to use the famous words of Ronald Reagan, “you ain’t
seen nothin’ yet”!

But while politics under Labour is
centred on bribery – bribing people with their own, or other
people’s hard-earned money – in a broader sense, politics
still is the contest of ideas.

When ACT challenged the
first MMP election in 1996, we did so as a party of fresh,
new ideas. We proposed solutions to many of the difficult
problems that New Zealand faced. While in the beginning we
were labeled as radicals and extremists, today, many of
those ideas have become mainstream and have been adopted by
other political parties. ACT’s agenda is shaping the future
direction of New Zealand.

We were a voice in the
wilderness when we first called for lower taxes. Now tax
cuts are a major election issue with even Labour promising
tax cuts: their tax cuts, which amount to a packet of
chewing gum a week in three years time, have been viewed by
many working families as insulting, but at least it is an
acknowledgement that taxes in New Zealand are now too
high.

When we first called for an end to the Treaty of
Waitangi grievance industry, we were labeled as racists and
radicals. Now almost every party acknowledges that time
limits on the Treaty settlement process are
necessary.

Similarly, our concern that separatism was
alive and well in New Zealand as a result of laws passed by
the National and Labour governments that gave privilege to
one racial group over everyone else, struck a chord with the
public. In fact, it was that deep-seated well of concern
that Don Brash tapped into with his infamous Orewa 1 speech.
And while Labour moved quickly to allay public fears about
their racist agenda, it has not gone away. Separatism is
still alive and well, not only within the Labour Party, but
also in the Green Party and the Maori Party.

When I first
called for the comprehensive reform of the welfare system,
my ideas were labeled as harsh and radical. Now these ideas
– which were always based on the common sense objective of
requiring able- bodied beneficiaries to get jobs – have
become mainstream. Even Labour talks the talk of welfare
reform in order to appease the public’s anxiety about the
widespread abuse of welfare, even though they refuse to
properly tackle the problem. As a result, welfare fraud and
abuse continues unabated.

When ACT first claimed that New
Zealand’s crime rate was too high and that we needed to
adopt not only a zero tolerance approach to crime, but also
tougher prison sentences, we were called rednecks. Now
almost every party wants to get tough on crime.

When I
first stood up for the rights of dads in New Zealand,
speaking out against a family law system that is totally
biased against fathers, I was viciously attacked by
feminists. But now almost everyone acknowledges that the law
is unfair, and that it harms children to miss out on having
regular contact with their fathers and grandparents. Again,
in terms of public perception, the problem is that while
Labour has picked up on the talk and made changes to family
law, these changes will not turn around the bias against
fathers. As a result, the social problems associated with
fatherlessness- educational failure, teenage pregnancy,
youth crime, substance abuse, unemployment, youth suicide -
will continue to trouble us in the years ahead.

ACT has
always believed in the fundamental importance of protecting
private property rights and would like to see them enshrined
in the New Zealand Bill of Rights. We were the first party
to call for the scrapping of the Resource Management Act,
which allows private property to be confiscated without
compensation. ACT also took the lead in opposing the Labour
Party's plan to allow legal trespass on private property
through their proposed ‘right to roam’ legislation. While
they have presently backed down and shelved the legislation,
it has not gone away, and will be back on the agenda if they
win the election.

ACT has always stood up for the rights
of private property investors – who own most of the houses
that Kiwi families rent - against the attack of the Labour
Government. Labour sees private sector landlords as the
enemy and seems to be hell bent on punishing them with
punitive laws, instead of treating them with the respect
that they deserve as partners in housing the
nation.

However, if Labour wins the election, investors in
rental property will need all the help they can get. Labour
has signaled their intent in introducing such measures as
rent controls, a landlord registration process, a warrant of
fitness check for all tenancies, a tenants union, and
possibly a capital gains tax, all of which will seriously
erode rental property as a great retirement
investment.

ACT came into Parliament promoting freedom,
choice, and personal responsibility. We have continued to
fight for these against the avalanche of politically correct
social engineering initiatives being promoted by a
government, which appears intent on controlling anything and
everything within their reach.

The problem for New Zealand
is that Labour and its left wing mates do not trust people
to be able to run their lives without the overbearing
control of the state. ACT, however, believes that
individuals can be trusted to run their lives well -
especially if they are given the financial means to do so -
and that the State should spend its time helping those
people who need additional support and carrying out its core
functions well.

If New Zealanders believe that ACT has
played an important role in shaping New Zealand, that our
ideas have merit, and that Parliament needs an experienced
team with the courage to speak the truth no matter how
unpalatable that might be, then we are asking them to
support us with their party vote on September 17th.

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